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David Walliams and Tony Ross' Gangsta Granny Strikes Again! (HarperCollins Children's Books) has spent a third week running in the UK Official Top 50 number one spot, selling 46,488 copies through Nielsen BookScan's TCM during a record-breaking start to December for the market.
At 7.5 million books sold for £67.5m, the market rocketed 27.3% in volume and 29% in value week on week. As the British book-buying public seemed to collectively realise that Christmas is edging perilously close, the market notched up its biggest week 48 in both volume and value terms since records began (excluding week 48 2020, which fell during Lockdown 2.0). It was even up on 2019's week 49, indicating a record-breaking December to come.
Guinness World Records 2022 held second place once again, topping the Hardback Non-Fiction chart. Could the perennial stocking filler be a dark horse for the Christmas number one? The last time the title clinched the festive top spot was in 2014, and the 2022 edition is currently ahead of that year's book in sales. Guinness World Records 2022 is within 5,000 copies of leapfrogging Gangsta Granny Strikes Again!—but the race is likely to be thrown into chaos next week when Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food (Bluebird) hits the charts.
Richard Osman's The Man Who Died Twice (Viking) also rose back into the top three, notching up a 10th week in the Original Fiction number one spot, and rising 63% in volume week on week. Last year, Osman's debut The Thursday Murder Club (Penguin) soared in sales in December, with an appearance on Graham Norton's BBC2 show boosting sales to over six-figure volume sales per week (and helping the cosy crime title to become the first debut to hit the Christmas number one spot). The Man Who Died Twice could now be shaping up to make a similar journey to the festive number one—next week's chart could be the ultimate showdown between the power of TV vs social media, if the sequel can defeat the new Pinch of Nom title.
Paul McCartney's The Lyrics (Allen Lane) jumped 93% in volume week on week, as it was named Waterstones Book of the Year 2021. The prize's previous two winners also jumped in sales, with 2019 winner The Boy, Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) galloping up 50% in volume week on week to hit eighth in Hardback Non-Fiction, and Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet (Tinder Press) rising 35% to swipe 15th in Mass-Market Fiction.
In the Amazon Charts, The Man Who Died Twice and Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat (Michael Joseph) have held their category top spots.